It's 3:05 in the afternoon on Sunday as I start this post, and just over half an hour ago was the official start of my "clear liquid diet," which begins 24 hours I am to check in for my colonoscopy tomorrow—at 2:30. Right now, I'm actually pretty full, a sensation I am savoring, as I will not be allowed to eat anything until tomorrow evening.

But, I should back up. The opposite of what I'll be doing this evening, ha!

I left work half an hour early on Friday, so I could take myself to see The Book of Clarence at Pacific Place at 4:20. I didn't particularly like it.

I took myself to another movie yesterday, the musical version of Mean Girls, which I liked okay.

I had a bit of a close call with the stuff I needed to prepare for my colonoscopy: Virginia Mason sent all my prescriptions to CVS Specialty Pharmacy, which actually sent only one of the three prescription items to me in the mail—ondansetron, the anti-nausea medicine. I called Virginia Mason yesterday morning to ask about the other two items, and the lady on the phone was just like, "Yeah, we sent that to Monroeville. Mall Blvd." Where the fuck is Monroeville? Turns out it's a suburb of Pittsburgh. As in, Pennsylvania.

I had them transfer the prescriptions to the Walgreens at Broadway & Pine, which is now what I have to use since the Bartell Drugs at Broadway & Union closed. To my relief and moderate surprise, they said I could come pick up the prescriptions "after 11:30 a.m." Shobhit walked with me to get his steps in, which he also did when I picked up my dry cleaning and we went to Trader Joe's to get some milk. It was about noon when we got to Walgreens, and they said it would take 15 minutes to get it put together. Shobhit very generously waited in my stead, so I could go back home and make the chai I wanted to take to the movie with me.

We hung out at home for a few hours atfter I was done with my review, and then, later in the evening, we actually went out dancing: Shobhit had gotten some kind of discount to get the $10 entry tickets for free, for a DJ set at the new club called Massive, which in the space R Place used to be in: R Place closed after losing its lease during the pandemic; Massive just opened last fall. Shobhit forwarded me the ticket conirmation email without any context, so it took me some time to figure out it was free entry to a new club at the old R Place location. And I figured: free entry, let's do it!

I wasn't much thinking about how fucking cold it was this weekend; it was 20° on our eight-block walk down there, at about 10:45 last night. Shobhit had walked downtown while I was at my movie yesterday, and then met me at the theater when the movie ended, so I could walk with him up to Broadway to look at jackets at the Crossroads thrift store. He still had almost $20 on a gift card, and he wound up getting a very high quality, very warm winter jacket that cost him just over $40 after the discount. Anyway, we walked through Cal Anderson Park on the way back, and so much of the fountain and reservoir—which were, oddly, running and full of water—were frozen over with ice that I took several photos. So many, in fact, that I went ahead and created a dedicated photo album (with, at present, ten shots in it).

It was too cold not to dress in layers when we left to go dancing, so I just kept my hoodie on after we checked our jackets for five bucks each. Shobhit bough us both a cocktail, and we each had a double, which we cheaper than two separate cocktails each. I had a Moscow Mule, and it was delicious, with a very strong lime flavor to it.

This was on the third floor, where they also had gogo boys dancing on pedestals, who were incredibly hot. One had on briefs that rose high above the bottom of his butt cheeks in the back, and he was the sexiest dancer, with very sensual moves. Another had on a kind of leather strapped onesie that still mostly just showed off his great body, and was open in the back for his butt. Another had on a sparkly thong. They were all delicious to look at.

It was also just fun to dance for a bit, which we did, holding our drinks, for about an hour. Shobhit did not dress in layers, unless you want to count his harness, which he had lamented never being able to wear in Australia, a layer. At first I just danced with his shirt on over it, but once he saw another guy wearing a harness, he took his shirt off. (Justine, from work, saw the selfie I posted to Instagram, and posed as a comment: "I'd love to know if the fashion choices represent your personalities?" I replied that, in a way, I suppose they do.

I posted the selfie, which had been taken at 11:31 p.m., while we were walking home from the club—at 12:13 a.m. Shobhit should be delighted to learn that he will thus get two points for this outing, which I have always done any time I've hung out socially with anyone past midnight, so that it stretches across two calendar dates. A technicality, sure, but those are the rules! (Which I made up. I have always also done this with anyone I spent New Year's Eve with.)

So. My clear liquid diet started at 2:30 this afternoon, but my low-fiber diet started Friday afternoon. Making sure I eat only foods with little to no fiber has been a new, odd experience. Shobhit made magi pasta for me, with only sauteed mushrooms and tofu added, for dinner on Friday, and that's what I had again for dinner last night, the last of it. I bought a loaf of white bread at Trader Joes, and after having had scrambled eggs (again with mushrooms) for breakfast yesterday—I had to take a break from my beloved cereal—this morning I had French toast.

Laney and I have had our first January Happy Hour scheduled for today for a long time, since long before the colonoscopy was scheduled. We were going to meet at Fonte Bar downtown at Rainier Square today, but then we learned that, only as of last week, they stopped opening on weekends. Dammit! We had to make a quick pivot, and so I took Laney's suggestion that we meet at Poquitos, which is very close to both of us—it's all of about a block and a half from her place.

There wasn't a lot I could eat there, though, on a low fiber diet. I thought I might get the jalapeño queso with chips, but the chips might have too much fiber. I considered just getting it anyway, and Shobhit felt that would be a mistake. Honestly. it probably would have been fine, but still, I left home a bit early and went to Walgreens and then to QFC, to see if I could find any low-figer or no-fiber chips. And I did! A bag of vegetable chips, which I took to Poquitos, and the server was very understanding about, when at first she thought I was giving my chips to Laney and, I guess, might just be eating the queso on its own? I then had to explain: "Well, this might be TMI, but I have a colonoscopy tomorrow and I'm on a low fiber diet." She told me she used to work in health care and it would take more than that to faze her. I did also say, "I'm sorry I'm being super tacky, but I brought my own chips." She said she was totally cool with it.

I had a margarita, a double again. Laney had two beers. She also had huevos rancheros, with the eggs scrambled, which I had never seen before—I love huevos rancheros but prefer them with runny eggs. Not that I could have eaten any today. Fucking tortillas and beans with fiber! Instead, because I knew chips and queso would not quite be sufficient, I made myself a veggie ham and cheese sandwich to eat right before I headed out.

Otherwise, Laney and I chatted, about countless things as usual, for a solid two hours or so. We talked a lot about movies, and discovered she was really interested in the new Planet of the Apes movie coming out this year, so we added two more double features for the leadup to that: the original, 1968 Planet of the Apes with the first of the newer franchise films, Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011); then the incongruously titled 2014 sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (which I think is the best one) with 2017's War for the Planet of the Apes. The one being released this May 10 is called Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Laney said she was super excited about this, which I was kind of surprised by. She said she used to go see the old ones with her dad. She only ever saw the first of these newer ones, but now we'll get her caught up.

[posted 3:52 pm]